Better
by Cavanaugh-Crimes
Summary: “As much as I enjoy your little fit of rage, I don´t have a clue what you´re talking about here! Enlighten me, please!”


**Disclaimer:****I don´t own anything to do with Crossing Jordan, but I sincerely wish I would. If I did own it, I would ... nevermind, read it and you know it!**

**A/N: This one takes place after "Don´t Leave Me This Way", and even though this chapter may be confusing, it will all make sense later. I promise!**

* * *

„I ...- I can´t do this, excuse me!"

He tried to get a hold of her as she bolted through the door, but she quickly brushed past him and vanished into the ladies restroom down the hall.

Tired, he rubbed his hands over his eyes, clearly remembering their many fights in the past. But his one was entire different.

He needed to focus back on the tricky situation ahead of him, he told himself. But it was difficult. He needed his answers, almost as much as he needed air to breath. And only she could give them to him this time.

It had always been him in the past. He had the answers, he had them all. He could have given them to her, in an unobserved moment, and they would never have been in the weird position they were now. But he didn´t. He didn´t give her any choice to find out, he cut her off every time she tried to elicit some information of him. He should have let her doing her own investigations, and she would have found out soon enough. But he didn´t want her snooping around anywhere near his own business. Now she would be the one who had to pull the strings. He just hoped she would draw the right ones, unlike him.

Finally forcing his now nearly numb mind back to her office, he stood and made an attempt to leave the dark and almost empty building. However, he just got as far as the door.

Something had caught his eye.

Assuming Jordan had accidentally dropped it, he reached down.

Staring a full minute at the tiny picture, he eventually folded it neatly and pocketed it.

There would be time later to return it, he mused.

* * *

It seemed like nearly a decade until she heard his footsteps losing themselves in the dark ME´s office. 

Slowly rising from the floor, she cautiously moved across the room and took a look at herself in one of the mirrors. A complete stranger stared back at her. If there were dark circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep in the last weeks before, they were now, mixed with the moisture of her tears, even more evident. Her mascara was a mess and her hair looked like it could use a new arrangement, too.

Why did things always get wrong when he was around?

Yes, she had promised him they would talk soon. She even meant it when she said tonight would be great. So why weren´t they having their "appointment" now, all safe in her office? She couldn´t name the reason.

She just knew he had come over from the precinct and told her something about trust issues and her not being able to leave things alone. Being caught off guard, she´d asked him what the hell he was talking about. An that was the moment he´d started yelling at her.

But if he had thought he was up for an uphill battle with her, he couldn´t have been more wrong.

After she finally had understood why he was so angry with her, she had a hard time not to laugh out loud. How did he even get the idea she would be the one who started a research at some of his unknown family members?

Yeah, she had asked him before about his relatives. But he had been reluctant to give her further information than that his father died when he was sixteen and he´d lost his mother in the age of four. And she knew he had a brother, Calvin. They´d met over a year ago, when he was involved into some serious drug transactions, among with the mob.

But otherwise, she almost didn´t know anything about his family. So just start a research? She may was lots of things, but insidious wasn´t one of them. She could have just asked him. But she didn´t because she noticed how much he tried to avoid that theme.

And now there was he, accusing her of the same thing.

"I don´t get it," she replied calm as he ended his heated speech.

"What part don´t you understand, Jordan? The one of doing things behind my back? Or that I can have you arrested because of _this_? Tell me!" He furious waved a thick file in front of her.

"As much as I enjoy your little fit of rage, I don´t have a clue what you´re talking about here! Enlighten me, please!" Her voice rose in high and volume, a sure sign she was as mad as he was now.

"You want a clue? How about this!" He all but threw the file at her.

His reaction wasn´t suprising, it was more the force with which he made his move. He again caught her off guard, and she wasn´t quick enough to grab it.

The file fell with a clattering noise to the floor, and all its contents were sprawled out.

She took a quick glance sideways at him, than collected the papers with as much grace as she could muster in this situation.

Standing there without any motion, Woody watched her. And that didn´t go unnoticed.

* * *

_Reviews, please? _


End file.
